UA administrator up for integrity award

By Steven NalleySpecial to The Tuscaloosa News

Wednesday

Jan 28, 2009 at 12:01 AM

Hasbro's game Catchphrase demands that players be experts at communicating with their teammates. In addition to being vice president of student affairs and vice provost at the University of Alabama, Mark Nelson is a professor at Alabama's College of Communication and Information Sciences. So it makes sense that Nelson loves Catchphrase.'He and his wife Tonya [Adams-Nelson] are very good at the game Catchphrase,' said Cason Kirby, president of the Student Government Association at Alabama. 'He is a very competitive board game player.'Nelson is also competing as a finalist for the Inspire Integrity Award, given to faculty who lead students to pursue professionalism ethically. Like Catchphrase, ethics goes hand-in-hand with communication, Nelson said.'I think being a professor in communications gives me a unique opportunity to talk to my students about ethical communications,' Nelson said. 'Some other disciplines might not lend themselves as easily to conversations about ethics and communication.'The award, presented by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, consists of a $3,000 stipend and a $2,000 donation in his or her name to the winner's university, with the runner-up receiving a $1,000 stipend and a $1,000 donation. Students in the society nominate faculty members for the award. While Kirby neither nominated him for the award nor knew who did, he said it was important to recognize Nelson's efforts, such as starting Academic Integrity Week last year.

'It's obvious he really cares about it,' Kirby said. 'I also think carrying out his daily responsibilities as academic provost, he inspires integrity.'Nelson also helped Capstone Creed and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars establish Alabama's Academic Honor Council, a group of nine students who debate academic integrity policies and judge cases of academic misconduct. They also serve as examples of integrity for their peers, which Nelson said is a commitment that must be lived out daily.

'I believe that integrity is never the destination, but rather it is our north star guiding us in the journey,' Nelson said. 'Integrity is very much like a muscle; it's not something you can exhibit one day and not the next.'

As an undergraduate at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Nelson received a scholarship to join the forensics team. Nelson said that privilege was the beginning of a commitment to serving students that led him to pursue a master's degree and doctorate at UA.

'Getting a scholarship to be on that team really changed my life, and so to be able to give that to others made me decide to go back to graduate school,' Nelson said. 'It is a responsibility; it is a service; it's a great way to spend your life.'After being director of forensics at Murray State University in Kentucky, he became a communications professor at Alabama. From 1991 to 2007, he rapidly moved up the UA ladder, from Communication and Information Sciences assistant dean to the college's associate dean to assistant provost to vice provost.

In 2008, while remaining vice provost, Nelson became the interim, and eventually permanent, vice president of student affairs. He still remains an active professor in communications, however, and he said the jobs were all closely related.

'Student affairs complements the academic mission of the university and ensures the development of the whole individual,' Nelson said. 'The vice president's role is to create a dynamic and thriving environment for students to grow.'

Robert Harris, a senior majoring in political science and history, said it is rare to see a high-ranking administrator retain the commitment to individual students as well as Nelson has. Harris said Nelson routinely meets with students in his office or at the Ferguson Center.

'Dr. Nelson is worthy of winning every award he can possibly win,' Harris said. 'He has been my favorite thing about the university.'

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